A Birthday Box

After watching the Canucks win in overtime last night (on TV), I started a much-delayed birthday gift for a friend. I mean, how much time can a box pouch take anyway? It was only 10:30 on a Friday night....

I've never made one before, so I scoured the internets for available tutorials and decided to use this one by Libby. Even the lining is completely turned, so there are no exposed seams on the inside of the pouch. Just to ramp up the challenge, I decided to cut into my stash of never-used coated cottons and chose an Amy Butler print for the lining (I got mine at a shop that has since closed, but I found some for you here).  Even though I make a lot of bags, visualizing how stuff is going to turn from inside out to right side out is not my strength, so I went slowly.

The tutorial was easy to follow with excellent photographs. The only issue I had was trying to sew over top of the zipper ends "in the same place" on both the lining and outer fabric (a luscious AMH linen interfaced with Pellon ShapeFlex, by the way).  I found this impossible due to the bulk of the pull tabs, but it's no biggie, it just means you can see stitches at the end of the zipper on the inside of the pouch.  This, of course, will make absolutely no sense to you unless you've tried to make one of these before!

The other issue that kept me up until 1:30 a.m. was finding the right needle for the job. My stitches were lovely on the top, but when trying to sew through any seam allowances that included the coated cotton, the bottom of the work was a bit of a tangled mess. The vinyl side of the fabric was not touching the plate or foot, but just sewing through that stuff proved disastrous to my tension. I think the thread must have been sticking to the vinyl within the layers.  Finally, a topstitch 80 needle coupled with increased top tension did the trick.  See Amy Butler's tips for sewing with her vinyl coated cottons here.

 

In the rare seams where I had to sew over the right (sticky) side of the coated lining, I used a teflon foot which easily glides over the vinyl.  Apparently a piece of tape on the bottom of  your presser foot can do the trick just as well - if only I'd known before springing $25 for the Pfaff foot! I've heard of putting tissue paper on top of the vinyl can help, but then you have to pick paper out of the stitches. No thanks.  I wish I could have given the pouch a final pressing (all boxes/bags/pouches look best with a good pressing) but I didn't want to risk melting the vinyl!

Rumour has it my friend's husband forgot her birthday today. Ouch. I'm so glad I stayed up late to make this for her!

Math Geek

Fabric Geek, Foodie Geek, Instagram Geek. Pick your title. I'll answer to them all.  It does give me great pleasure to see that my son has grown up into a very intelligent 16 year old who not only does very well in math, he actually really loves it, too. Unlike his mom who did well in math but forgets absolutely everything she learned, I have a feeling he'll be retaining his knowledge for years to come.

I try to always gift something handmade for family birthdays. It's getting tough for a teenage boy, but this year I had some help in the form of irresistible fabric designed by none other than the talented Berene of Happy Sew Lucky. I ordered a FQ of her Math Class Notes fabric in grey on linen during the 2 for 1 Spoonflower sale last fall. It was neatly folded awaiting this uber geeky graphing calculator pouch for T's birthday last week:

The geologist in me could not resist the coordinating rock fabric!

I'm just waiting for the orders to start rolling in, because you know every guy in his class is going to want one, right? hehe. I noticed he put it into his backpack this morning. I hope he's not embarrassed by his Fabric Geek mom.

Have you got a Math Geek in your life? Order some fabric and make them something cool with it!

This is it Baby. GO! Giveaway

Today is my birthday (like you didn't already know) and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than giving one of you a present. When Accuquilt offered me the opportunity to try out one of their adorable GO!Baby cutters I was very happy to accept because it meant I could then share one with one of you. These are expensive tools and not necessarily something everyone can just run out and buy. It feels nice to be able to gift something like that!

You can read more about my escapades with the cutter here and here see a tutorial for making your own QR Code quilt on my flickr sets here. I've only used my GO!Baby to cut 2" squares so far. I have been getting a lot of ideas of what else I could use my new tumbler and chisel dies for, though. Luckily I have two willing assistants who think rolling the dies through the cutter is a super fun job (it is!) so when I'm ready to tackle one of those projects I know who to call.

I've had some inquiries about whether an Accuquilt cutting machine would be helpful for someone with arthritis in their hands. Well, I have arthritis in my hands that is mostly in remission, but easily flared by repetitive strain. I can say this: you have to be able to grip, both the top handle to stabilize the cutter, and the rolling handle to turn it. A flat hand over the top would work for holding the machine steady, but a full grip is necessary to turn the crank. The dies did flow VERY easily through the machine with 3 fabric layers so you don't necessarily need a tight grip...any more than 3 layers require more general arm strength and a tighter grip. Also, unless you are using scraps, fabric preparation with rotary equipment is still required, so this is not a replacement for rotary work by any means. I don't believe any auto-cutting system is.

The good news is that the GO! Baby is just plain fun to use, and very safe (the blades are super sharp, but if a grown-up places the fabric and cutting mat on top of the die safely, then a smaller helper can roll it through the machine for you). Or a big man helper, whichever you happen to have on hand.

For your chance to win a GO!Baby and three dies of your choice, please leave ONE comment. Your email address MUST be linked, or written in your comment for a valid entry. If you blog on a platform other than Blogger, your email is not linked, please leave it in your comment!!

This giveaway will be open until Thursday, July 28th at 6:00 pm PST

ETA: comments are now closed, thanks for entering. Winners will be announced when I return home the week of Aug.1st.

Now, before I received my GO!Baby, I had entered a lot of giveaways trying to win one myself. I know what a bummer it is not to win, so with that in mind, I'm going to offer a very small consolation prize to three more Poppyprint readers.

You can choose your favourite colour of my poppy-printed fabric and I'll send you a piece!

Ok, if you are here for free stuff, go ahead and leave a comment. If you are curious about the good-luck birthday story I mentioned the other day, here you go.

I had always thought I was lucky that my birthday was on the 22nd, because that meant I would be old enough to do something really cool on my "good luck" birthday. You know, turning 22 on the 22nd. Well, I did do something really cool that day. In fact, it was something I NEVER would have dreamed of. Turns out, that summer of '89 I got a job in South Africa through recruiters at my university. Gold Fields, a South African mining company, had a program to bring over foreign geology and mining students for their summer term and give them 'a job' to experience the mining industry there. The hope was that you'd return after obtaining your qualifications. As a geology student, I was able to work at the mineralogy lab, and live in an apartment in Johannesburg (most of the mining students remained out on the mines in staff housing). Over one two week period, I had the opportunity to work at a field camp just north of Swaziland - there I rode my mountain bike amongst ostrich, wild boar & zebra since we were just inside of a soon-to-be-game park. Pretty cool. Fortunately I never encountered a Black Mamba, which apparently had been found in the shower shack the week before I got there!

Here's the birthday part: turns out King Mswati III of Swaziland turned 21 that summer and he decided to celebrated on the 22nd, even though is birthday is in April. Now, he's turned out to be a not-so-great guy for his country because of all the money he blows through, and I'm not sure how his 14 wives feel about him, but for his 21st birthday, he threw an incredible party! I drove down with a South African geologist and another American student and we camped out at this amazing field (Woodstock style, but with less mud). There was an incredible concert including Eric Claptan, Joan Armitrading, Johnny Clegg & Savuka all playing on this massive outdoor stage, while the King circled overhead in a helicopter. At the end of the night there was a stunning fireworks display. BEST. BIRTHDAY.EVER. The photos are in a box of slides somewhere in my crawl space....maybe one day I'll dig them out and share.

So, my friends, there you have it. Another year. I still am having a very hard time believing that concert was 22 years ago and that I am twice as old today as I was then. I'll leave you with this beautiful bouquet, dropped off by the incomparable friend Double NN Dianne last night.

Good luck in the giveaway and thanks for stopping by for my birthday party!

What does one do for a 144th birthday?

Yesterday my favorite place on Earth celebrated it's 144th birthday. We share a birthday month, Canada and I. I've always loved Canada Day. My friend Amy asked what we do here on July 1st. I thought I'd give you a little photo essay of some of the things we did yesterday.

Since moving to North Vancouver 11 years ago this month, we have always attended the community parade. Rain or shine. I'm pretty sure there has been more rain. Although yesterday was in fact dry, it was unseasonably cold (big surprise - have I mentioned we're having the worst spring/summer in 50 years?).

Flynn loves the bagpipes as much as D does.

We get all silly with face paint (my friend's daughter did her maple leaf makeup all by herself. Pretty cool, eh?). It's a sea of red and white clothes, hats and flags, too. Vancouver is particularly well-clothed since having the Olympics last year!

We watch old men in funny hats ride teeny motorcycles

We eat delicious donuts from the little shop around the corner, Harmony Donuts.

We ditch the hockey sticks & have lawn bowling tourneys!

There are usually a few beers consumed, some families go camping (we always stay home and avoid nightmare long-weekend traffic), or get together for BBQ's, and the day is all capped off with fireworks. When I was a teenager, I lived in Canada's capital city Ottawa. The fireworks displays behind our Parliament Buildings were IN.SANE. The entire city is jam packed. William and Kate were there last night!!

We enjoyed fireworks from the West Vancouver seawall - the show is set off from a barge anchored about 300 yards off shore and it's a wonderful place for families to enjoy the amazing display.

I hope you're having fun this weekend, too! If you haven't already, scroll down one post and enter my first-of-four birthday giveaway. Each week in July I'll be giving something away. Yippee!

A Month of Giveaways at Poppyprint!!!

Happy Canada Day, fellow Canadian quilters and friends! And for the rest of you....uhm, Happy Friday!

Today is the first day of my birthday month, and to celebrate with all of you, there will be a giveaway every week in July here at Poppyprint. Stuff is piling up, so I figured the best way to get through all that I have to share is to begin today with a thanks for all of my followers. I first mentioned I'd do a giveaway when that nifty follower matrix over there reached 500, but you've all gone wild (aw, shucks) and now I'm over 550, so let's get on with it!

I made this great thread catcher to share with one lucky reader.

I've been hanging on to this pear fabric for ages, waiting for just the right coordinating print. Finally the Metro Living circles in yellow came along and bingo, everyone was happy.

That's not all. The thread catching bag will come stuffed with all of this, too.

Some spring frames, a clip-on retractable scissor holder, super adorable It's a Hoot charm pack, plus a hunk of my hand-printed Poppyprint on Kona black. Woohoo!

So, if you follow along here (or are a brand new follower) please leave one comment (with a way for me to contact you) for your entry. This giveaway will be open until Thursday, July 7th at 6:00 p.m. PST. On Friday, I'll announce the winner, AND the next week's fabulous giveaway.

It's a month long party and of course YOU are invited!! Thanks for making my tiny little niche on the net so much fun. I truly am having a ball with all of you.

comments are now closed, thanks for entering!

Who's got the Safe Asset (Giveaway)?

First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY B!!!! I wish you a mellow, happy day at work (it's a wish - but I'm thinking the people who have influence over these things likely do not read my blog). We'll be there at the end to take you out for a nice dinner and then we're going to see this fantastic musical.

And for you, lovely bloggy friends, thanks for entering my Kaffe Fasset Autumn giveaway and share in the celebration of my one year blogiversary!!

There were 103 comments, but the last two snuck in after my deadline, so the RNG has spoken.... see?

True Random Number Generator

Min: Max: Result: 22Powered

Counting down brings us to:

Lesly said...

Glorious colour, indeed! I'd love to get those in the mail!

Lesly is the big winnah! Congratulations!. Please send me an email (address right over there under my smiley face) with your postal address and I'll get your luscious fat quarters off to you right away!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (those of you in Canada, anyway). We are excited to once again spend this harvest weekend with friends here, so I'll be taking a few days off from blogland. Back soon!

A Quickie

This time of year is full of family birthdays. I try as often as I can to make gifts for everyone, but I must admit, I'm losing steam on the grown-ups and feeling like it would be best to concentrate on the kids (nieces and nephews). Up first are my sister's girls, both this month. When we were young, she and I often got 'the same but different gifts' and this usually worked out.....except for the clock radio Christmas, but that's another story.

So, my nieces will soon receive these sweet wallets made from my coveted Japanese linen stash using Valori Wells Little Wallet Card pattern. You've seen these here before. This time, I think I'll throw in a few bucks so they can buy themselves something fun.

See those shadows? That's late afternoon autumn sunshine, my friends. Love it!

Don't forget to enter my one year blogiversary Safe Asset Giveaway for some gorgeous autumn-coloured Kaffe Fasset FQ's!

Birthday girl

July is my birthday month. This year, I was on vacation for my birthday (as I have been for the vast majority of birthdays in my life). I've celebrated in a tent trailer, at my Grandparent's house in Nova Scotia, on a mountainside in the Yukon, at King Mswati's inaugural 21st birthday concert in Swaziland [that was a good one] and last year, in my own backyard. We held an outdoor movie night and projected animated shorts and the Muppet Show onto a screen with a digital projector.

But this year we were in Ontario at my parent's house. My two brothers & SIL's were there, my 2 nieces, 2 nephews and mom & dad. It was really fun to have so much of our family in one place, gathered around one huge table for a delicious salmon feast and this amazing chocolate mousse cake:

Not only did my family make by birthday very special, but my bloggy buddies did, too! The very talented 'other Krista' of Spotted Stone Studio way up in Anchorage sent me one of her adorable pennant quilts. I mentioned to her that I wanted to make one to hang during the birthday weeks of my family members. Upon finding out I hadn't yet made one, she did it for me!!

The pennants are appliqued onto linen. I LOVE red, so the binding is just perfect. Thank you so much Krista!!

Now, along with the quilt, Krista sent me a beautiful card. It's extra-special because it comes from another one of our bloggy friends, Amy, of During Quiet Time. And guess what, Amy sent me one, too! With a fabric print as well (she knows I'm trying to naturalize Snow Drops in my front yard with limited success and she also knows sunflowers were our wedding flower - that girl pays attention).

Amy sells her cards and other beautifully crafted items (needlebooks, tea cozies, mini-quilts..etc) featuring her lino-cut prints on fabric in her Etsy shop. Check it out!

And last but not least, this lovingly created needlecase sent to me by Michelle. She purchased it from a crafter named Brenda Geiger in northern B.C. Michelle was our backdoor neighbour years ago and we have reunited through blogging!

Friends really are the best. Thank you girls for remembering my birthday and making it extra special! I will close with this quote off the front of a Leigh Standley card given to me by 'two N Dianne':

"A really good friend" she said "makes you snort when you laugh, and will still hang out with you when you do it in public"

Although I don't make a habit of it, I have indeed been known to snort, and it's a good thing I do have such great friends because my kids will definitely NOT hang out with me when I do it in public!

I think that's it for the post-vacation-goodies reveal. Next up, some of my holiday photos, including some extraordinarily old quilts made by African Canadians (currently on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto). Yup, I found TWO quilt shows to see!

Loot

I've made it through the holidays and now, kid's birthday week. Yes, both of our children are in the first week of January and by the time the birthdays are done, so am I!! Sometimes we save our celebrations with friends to later in the month, but this year with people getting older, we decided to go to movies in lieu of a big party. The boys saw Avatar. Unbelievably, spectacularly, imaginatively awesome (but that's just my opinion). The girls saw Leap Year. Let's just say that it functions as a very nice tourism video for Ireland.

D had 3 friends sleepover after the movie and asked me if I would make them all something small as their 'loot bag'. I'm happy to oblige, but the request was made on Thursday...sleepover was set for Friday. Sheesh. I used Valori Wells' cute wallet pattern that some friends and I picked up at the Stitchin Post in Sisters last July.

D had fun choosing all of the fabric combinations for each friend individually. She thought about each of them very carefully, trying to decide on just the right fabric, taking her time. A girl after my very own heart! Before she started touching, she first asked "is anything off limits?". To which I replied (after first taking deep breath) "of course not honey, anything you like in my stash, we can use." Aren't I a big girl?

T's birthday was a biggie for me...there's a teenager in da house! The most significant impact of this milestone for me is the realization that in less than 1/2 the time he's been in our lives already, he'll be gone from us! I hope he doesn't go too far. My family has a tendency to do that (go far, that is...my poor Mom). T's closing in fast on my height, is wearing the same shoe size as B and has started attending the 'teen' dances at the rec center. Here we go!!

Squashy delight

Happy birthday B!!! It's very exciting. Not only is it another amazing day weather-wise (clear, crisp, sunshiney), but it will be the first day of fall pumpkin baking for me. I absolutely love pumpkin in all forms: carved into a Hallowe'en jack-o-lantern, pureed in soup, baked into a pie/cake/muffins/cookies, stirred into creamy risotto. I'm not that picky, really. Just give me pumpkin!! I've got several already lining the front steps of the house, ready for the kids to carve in a couple of weeks' time.

But for now, I'm off to bake one of these for B to have after our restaurant dinner tonight. I'm sure he'll share.



This cake is devine. It is a Martha recipe "Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Icing". Yum, yum, triple yum. I found it one day while googling pumpkin recipes and have made it several times with great success.

And speaking of birthdays, just look at the grin on Miss Fiona when she opened her Eiffel Tower pillow cover!

I'd say she loved it (and I'm so pleased - it's most excellent when someone loves your work as much as you do, isn't it?). That's why I gift it away.....to good, kind, appreciative homes, that is.

Happy Thanksgiving (if you're north of the 49th parallel) this weekend. We've received a lovely invite to spend the holiday with friends on Vancouver Island. I'll be back next week with a reveal of my mystery fabrics. They are almost as delicious as Pumpkin Cake with Burnt Butter Icing!!